Jenny Frame

Just One Dance by Jenny Frame

Dreams can come true…if you believe AND put in the hard work.

What I liked:
* Taylor’s business idea of Regency Romance Club as a dating venue
* Watching Taylor pursue her dream and then see it come to life
* Taylor’s family – her moms, three older brothers and their partners and how loving and supportive they were
* Taylor’s willingness to state what she wanted in in her business and personal life
* The supporting characters: Gracie, Lady Catherine, Jamie, Mr. & Mrs. Parrot, and others
* That the romance did finally lead to a happy ending

What I didn’t like:
* Bailey’s fretting over the fact that Taylor is 19 years younger and feeling it is inappropriate to date her – it got old after awhile
* Not sure about the breakup – was expecting it and it made sense. but it made me wonder if in fact Bailey and Taylor were actually perfect together

Did I enjoy this book? It was okay
Would I read more by this author? Maybe

Thank you to NetGalley and BoldStrokes Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars… (altro)

A Haven for the Wanderer by Jenny Frame
Rosebrook #3

Opposites attract in this story of a safe haven found by more than one that moves to Rosebrook and in this boo, the first in the series that I have read, it is the turn of Bronte and Griffin to meet, get to know one another, and connect in what might prove to be more than either thought they would find.

What I liked:
* Bronte: from privileged background, has a difficult mother caught up in pretension and the past, seeks to help wildlife, guarded, attracted to Griffin, hopes Rosewood will be her safe haven
* Griffin: raised by her mother, grew up without much, a wanderer who has seen the world, strong, resilient, brewer, dealing with new difficult to process information, might find her safe haven in Rosewood
* The attraction that Bronte and Griffin felt for one another, and the slow burn feel to the romance
* The accepting open community that the village of Rosewood provides
* Fox, Clementine, and Lucy who no doubt had a book of their own previously – they are a strong family unit that had a big part in creating what Rosewood has become
* The community Christmas spirit of the cold challenge for charity, the way they worked to prevent the poaching, and getting to know some of the other people in the community
* How the situation with Bronter’s mother and Griff’s uncle were handled
* All of it really except…

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4 Stars… (altro)

Jenny Frame has written another book featuring a Queen and her consort. This time, the book is obviously supposed to be a thriller and she has set it in the future but doesn’t give her readers even a hint of how far into the future. She uses the that premise to introduce as-of-yet discovered scientific advances but doesn’t give her readers even a hint how they work or any other detail to help them understand them.

This “thriller” uses that plot point as filler. It is as if Frame couldn’t make up her mind whether she wanted to write a book that has readers holding their breath or a romance they could swoon over, which only serves to make this book less than by diluting both the thrilling parts of the book as well as the romance parts of the book.

Frame has two interesting main characters in Casey and Poppy but has them in a slow-burn romance that doesn’t do either character justice. The author also introduces two characters, a brother and sister, as Poppy’s new best friends. Unfortunately, those two remain amorphous throughout the book and because of that, readers may be disappointed in the end because, for ninety per cent of the book, they believed that the pair are part of the plot to kill the royals but nope, they were just two under-developed characters after all.

The end of the book is rushed as if the author suddenly realized that a deadline was looming and needed to end it immediately.

While fans of Frame will undoubtedly like this book, new readers will be unimpressed with her lack of ability to move seamlessly between the two main characters and the villain. If readers are interested in romantic thrillers, they should look elsewhere, for instance the books of Cari Hunter and Ali Vali published by this publisher.

My thanks to Bold Strokes Books for an eARC.… (altro)

I was cautiously optimistic about HUNGER FOR YOU, as I haven't had great luck with Frame's books in the past but was super excited for lesbian vampires. I'm disappointed but not terribly surprised that I ended up unable to finish and DNF'd at 22%.
The central issue I have with the story is that it starts six months into the relationship and I'm completely unsure why the two heroines fell in love. I read in another review that there's a prequel novella, and perhaps if I had read that, my opinion would be different.
The book starts with the two of them in Amelia's uncle's tailor shop, where she works and where Byron has been shopping for decades. They're about to go on a vacation to Italy, which is where Byron intends to finally tell Amelia that Byron's a vampire. This is all fine... if it was like 30% into the book. As it stands, I was confused where the plot was hiding, where the chemistry was, etc. The book picks up at around 10% of the way in, with the introduction of a rival vampire clan, but the half of the narrative that follows the central couple plods along awkwardly.
I'm sure the book improves after the point that I stopped reading, but I gave a month of my reading life to trying to get through this and at some point, you have to throw in the metaphorical towel. I will say that it reads like a lot of the vampire romance that came out after Twilight, just chock full of queer women. If that sounds like something you'd like to read, you may want to check this out. I have no complaints about the sex, the representation I read, etc. It's just that the storytelling itself didn't work for me.… (altro)